Ceres, Celestial Legend

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Ceres, Celestial Legend

First volume of the original Japanese release of the Ceres, Celestial Legend manga
妖しのセレス
(Ayashi no Ceres)
Genre Action, Fantasy, Romance
Manga
Author Yuu Watase
Publisher Flag of Japan Shogakukan
Demographic Shōjo
Serialized in Shōjo Comic
Original run May 1996 – March 2000
Volumes 14
TV anime
Director Hajime Kamegaki
Studio Studio Pierrot
Licensor Viz Media
Network Flag of Japan WOWOW
Original run April 20, 2000 – September 28, 2000
Episodes 24

Ceres, Celestial Legend (妖しのセレス Ayashi no Seresu?) is a fantasy shōjo manga series written by Yuu Watase. It was originally serialized in Shōjo Comic from May 1996 through March 2000. The chapters were also published by Shogakukan in fourteen collected volumes. The series focuses on Aya Mikage, who learns on her sixteenth birthday that she is the reincarnation of a celestial maiden (天女 tennyo?) named Ceres, and her twin brother Aki the reincarnation of Ceres' former husband. Ceres begins manifesting in Aya. To try to save her brother, Aya must find Ceres' lost celestial robe (羽衣 hagoromo?), while trying to avoid being killed or captured by the Mikage family, who wants to use Ceres powers for their own gain.

The manga series is licensed for English language release in North America by Viz Media. In 1998, it won the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōjo.[1] Studio Pierrot adapted the series into a twenty-four episode anime series that premiered in Japan on WOWOW on April 20, 2000 and ran until September 28, 2000. The anime series is also licensed for Region 1 release by Viz Media.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The story revolves around a teenage girl named Aya and her twin brother Aki, members of the wealthy and powerful Mikage family.

On their sixteenth birthday, they are called to gather in their family home to be given a special present. Instead they find themselves the victims of an ancient family ritual. Aya is proven to be the reincarnation of a celestial maiden (天女 tennyo?), and upon reaching the age of sixteen her body is able to bring forth a powerful, celecital maiden called Ceres, the tennyo. When she transforms into Ceres, Aya obtains supernatural powers and often forgets what she has done during the transformation, resulting in a double personality. According to the legend, if left to live, the reincarnation of Ceres will bring ruin upon the Mikage family. Aya quickly finds herself assigned a death penalty by her own family. However, she is saved by Suzumi Aogiri, another tennyo descendant, from Kansai and Suzumi's brother-in-law, Yūhi. They take Aya into their home after she is forced to run from the Mikage.

Events escalate as Aya struggles to control Ceres and her brother gains the ability to manifest as "Shiso Mikagi", the ancestor of the Mikage family who stole Ceres' celestial robe (羽衣 hagoromo?), without which she cannot return to heaven. Aya must also wrestle with affection for Toya, a Mikage employee with no memory of his own past. He is assigned to protect Aki and observe Aya by the leader of the C-project (celestial project). As he carries out his mission, he begins to develop feeling for Aya, and she for him.

As Aya's allies increase, which include two C-Genomers (celestial descendants) like herself and the Aogiri family, and Tōya, she manages to make an agreement with Ceres. Aya promises to retrive Ceres's "hagoromo" in exchange for the celestial maiden's mercy toward her brother and Toya.

Aya's quest to find Ceres's hagoromo wavers as she struggles with the emotional trauma of losing her family, battles the organization carrying out the C-Project, fights off the advances of Shiso Mikagi, and defies the forces that threaten to tear her away from Tōya. Tōya also struggles to find himself and regain his lost memory. In doing so, he learns that he was the organism that was created from the hagoromo or mana and his purpose was to return the mana back to Ceres.

[edit] Characters

Aya Mikage (御景 妖 Mikage Aya?)
  • Voiced by: Yumi Kakazu (Japanese), Mariette Sluyter (English)
A high-school girl and heroine at the beginning of the story who discovers she is a descendant of a tennyo named "Ceres" and is Ceres' latest medium for existence. The Mikage family takes this as a threat and continuously tries to take Aya's life. Her father is killed attempting to protect her. Her mother is forced into a coma for the majority of the series. While Aya is initially horrified that her life has been turned upside down, she is determined to right the past doings of her family and recover Ceres' hagoromo so that her family will no longer suffer in fear of Ceres. Later she finds herself falling in love with Tōya.
Ceres (セレス Seresu?)
  • Voiced by: Junko Iwao (Japanese), Onalea Gilbertson (English)
A celestial maiden or tennyo from the legend, who married the founder of the Mikage family, Shiso Mikagi. While she is extremely powerful and volatile, she seeks to recover her hagoromo, or celestial robe, to regain her powers. She has repeatedly attempted to manifest herself through certain female descendants of her line when they reach the age of sixteen, only to be thwarted each time as they are killed by the Mikage family. Ceres hides a tragic past misinterpreted by descendants who seek to kill Aya to stop Ceres for another generation.
Tōya (十夜 Tōya?)
A mysterious young man who has absolutely no memory of his past or the nature of his being; his only clues are two names: "Tōya" ("ten nights", his name), and "Mikage". He was found and hired by Kagami and works for Mikage International, and later rebels against them. He and Aya are drawn to one another, not only in love. Tōya is the embodiment/offspring of the hagoromo which Ceres is searching for. As he regains his lost memories, he sacrifices the immortality bestowed upon him by the object to save Aya and his unborn child. At the end of the series he tells Yūhi that he may not live for long and that Yūhi should take care of Aya once he dies.
Aki Mikage (御景 明 Mikage Aki?)
Aya's twin brother, a gentle and caring person who is subject to becoming a medium for the spirit of Mikagi, the founder of the Mikage family who aggressively pursues Aya and Ceres and almost raped Aya. In the end he sacrifices his life to destroy the violent Mikagi's reincarnation.
Suzumi Aogiri (梧 納涼 Aogiri Suzumi?)
  • Voiced by: Mayumi Asano (Japanese), Maizun Jayoussi (English)
A widow and a C-Genomer (tennyo descendant) from the Kansai region, Suzumi is a head of a branch of the one of the Aogiri family's schools of Japanese dance. She welcomes Aya into her household when she discovers Aya has become Ceres' latest medium. Suzumi cannot become a tennyo like Aya, though she does possess slight psychic powers like clairvoyance and telekinesis. She is capable of making protective charms for Yūhi as he strives to aid Aya.
Yūhi Aogiri (梧 雄飛 Aogiri Yūhi?)
Suzumi's brother-in-law, the adopted younger brother of Suzumi's deceased husband. He wore a headband enhanced with tennyo magic made by Suzumi. Yūhi has unrequited feelings for Aya, who comes to see him as a brother. But then he accepts the fact that Aya only has eyes for Tōya. Later, he begins to return the affections of Chidori Kurama. A notable martial arts expert, he is also an extraordinary cook.
Kyū Oda, "Mrs. Q" (小田 玖 Oda Kyū?)
  • Voiced by: Kujira (Japanese), Doug McKeag (English)
The Aogiri's household help, a gnome-like woman known for her reckless driving and ridiculously ugly appearance, despite her consistent claims that she is a beautiful woman. She's convinced that she and Tōya are made for each other.
Chidori Kuruma (来間 千鳥 Kuruma Chidori?)
Another C-Genomer from Tochigi Prefecture; a cheerful, high-school girl who looks child-like that she is until she transforms into a tennyo. Chidori cares deeply for her younger brother, Shouta, who was hospitalized upon her introduction into the story. She can transform into a tennyo at will. She develops deepening feelings from her crush on Yūhi, as she dies for his sake.
Chidori’s tennyo name is Pallas.
Yuki Urakawa (浦川 由貴 Urakawa Yuki?)
A high-school girl and a C-Genomer who goes the same school as Yūhi and Aya. Yuki is quiet and has a weak constitution. She can't transform into a tennyo, but she can manifest the power of pyrokinesis. She's having a relationship with her teacher, who is actually an agent sent by the Mikage International to capture/eliminate Aya (Ceres). In the end, Urakawa burned the agent and hugged him, which causes her to get severely burned and die.
Miori Sahara (佐原 美緒里 Sahara Miori?)
  • Voiced by: Akiko Yajima (Japanese), Meredith Taylor-Parry (English)
Aya's distant cousin and a C-Genomer from Shizuoka Prefecture. She is an ordinary, high-school girl living a normal, happy life with her mother. Her mother was summoned by the Mikages and was killed at the main house when Aya first transformed into Ceres. When Aya comes to a new school, the two meet and become friends. Although Aya doesn't know about her personally, Miori is only pretending and has an agenda of her own. She transformed into a tennyo to take on on Aya (as Ceres) to avenge her mother's death. She later committed suicide as her final act of "revenge" against Aya.
Miori’s tennyo name, like Aya, is Ceres.
Shuro Tsukasa (司 珠呂 Tsukasa Shuro?)
  • Voiced by: Shizuka Sasaki (Japanese), Elizabeth Stepkowski (English)
An Okinawan C-Genomer raised as a man by her family in fear that Shuro would one day take away the family's heirloom hagoromo and ascend to heaven. She is GeSANG's famous pop star alongside her cousin Kei Tsukasa. She dies near the end of the series attempting to free the C-Genomes. Shuro has the ability to magnify her voice to epic amplitudes when she transforms into a tennyo, to a degree that people near her had their hearts rupture.
Shuro’s tennyo name is Juno.
Kagami Mikage (御景 各臣 Mikage Kagami?)
Aya's distant cousin and director of C-Project (Celestial Project) conducted by Mikage International. He is one of the few members of the family who actually wants to meet Ceres and does not fear her. In fact, he almost seems in love with her. Kagami wants her captured for study, so that he can harness the power of the tennyo and wishes to learn their true nature in hopes of bettering humanity, though his methods are less than moral. When Kagami was young he suffered a tragic childhood and was beaten by his mother for not being the best at things. Because of this it has an effect on his personality. His objective on C-Project is to create the "perfect" human race.
Alec (アレク Areku?) / Alexander O. Howell (アレクサンダー・O・ハウエル Arekusandā O. Haueru?)
Studied in the USA, Alec is a Scottish scientist hired by Kagami for the research of tennyo legends. He speaks Japanese with a thick accent, a certified genius with a very high IQ and is a complete otaku. He works for Mikage International and provided advanced technology for the development of C-Project. As the project progresses, Alec soon finds out that things are not really going to what he expected and tries to back out from it. The only thing keeping him from doing his job ends up being his own moral convictions.
Gladys Smithson (グラディス・スミソン Guradisu Sumison?)
An American colleague of Alec who works for the C-Project at Mikage International. She's responsible for the C-Genomer's power growth and development.
Wei Fei Li (偉 飛麗 Wěi Fēi-lì?)
A young, skilled martial artist from China hired by Mikage International. Wielding a vicious chain whip and various tiny throwing blades, he is often sent out to bring in captured C-Genomers or other covert tasks. When Tōya tried to leave the headquarters together with Aki, Wei was sent stop them. His left eye was taken by Tōya during their fight. He is Aki's (and Shiso's) caretaker and bodyguard, and as Tōya's replacement. He seems to be calm most of the time and does not complain, but harbors a grudge against Tōya for the injury he caused.
Shiso Mikagi (始祖・ミカギ Shiso Mikagi?)
A man from the Jōmon period of Japan and the founder of the Mikage family. In the legend, he hid her hagoromo in the ocean forcing her to become mortal. Toward the end, it is revealed that he had begun as a gentle, kind young man. Ceres falls in love with him, to the point of granting him power after their family is attacked and he is ashamed at his own inability to protect them. As Shiso grows strong, he went mad and his love becoming an obsession that drives him to hide the hagoromo, and Ceres comes to fear for her children's safety. When she leaves, he chases her and is killed by Ceres (after he kills their first child), who covers him with lacerations identical to the ones that appear on Aki Mikage when Mikagi manifests himself in his descendant. He will stop at nothing to ensure Ceres is his again.
Assam
An young assassin from Indonesia hired by Kagami Mikage to kill Tōya after Tōya cut his ties with Kagami to join Aya. He is also a replacement for Tōya. His goal for the C-Project is to stop using children as objects of war.

[edit] Media

[edit] Manga

Written by Yuu Watase, Ceres, The Celestial Legend premiered in Shogakukan's Shōjo Comic May 1996 issue and ran through the March 2000 issue. The chapters were collected and published in fourteen collected volumes, with the first volume released on December 11, 1996. Starting October 15, 2005, Shogakukan began re-releasing the series in six special edition volumes, with the final one released December 15, 2005.[2]

In 2001, Viz Media licensed the manga for an English language release in North America.[3] The series was originally released in a flipped trade paperback format, however Viz stopped publication after four volumes. In 2003, Viz re-released the first four volumes in unflipped standard manga size volumes, along with the remaining ten volumes.[4] In the table below, the dates and ISBN numbers given for the first four volumes are for their second edition re-releases.

# Original English
Release date ISBN Release date ISBN
1 December 11, 1996 ISBN 4-09-136354-7 October 29, 2003 ISBN 978-1569319802
2 March 19, 1997 ISBN 4-09-136355-5 February 4, 2004 ISBN 978-1569319819
3 June 26, 1997 ISBN 4-09-136356-3 May 5, 2004 ISBN 978-1569319826
4 September 26, 1997 ISBN 4-09-136357-1 August 4, 2004 ISBN 978-1591166092
5 December 15, 1997 ISBN 4-09-136358-X October 29, 2003 ISBN 978-1569319796
6 March 26, 1998 ISBN 4-09-136359-8 February 4, 2004 ISBN 978-1591161097
7 June 26, 1998 ISBN 4-09-136360-1 April 28, 2004 ISBN 978-1591162599
8 September 26, 1998 ISBN 4-09-137641-X August 17, 2004 ISBN 978-1591162605
9 December 15, 1998 ISBN 4-09-137642-8 November 16, 2004 ISBN 978-1591162612
10 March 26, 1999 ISBN 4-09-137643-6 February 16, 2005 ISBN 978-1591162629
11 June 26, 1999 ISBN 4-09-137644-4 May 10, 2005 ISBN 978-1591162636
12 September 25, 1999 ISBN 4-09-137645-2 August 17, 2005 ISBN 978-1591162643
13 December 14, 1999 ISBN 4-09-137646-0 November 8, 2005 ISBN 978-1591162650
14 March 25, 2000 ISBN 4-09-137647-9 February 7, 2006 ISBN 978-1421502632
Kanzenban releases
# Release date ISBN
1 October 15, 2005 ISBN 4-09-191691-0
2 October 15, 2005 ISBN 4-09-191692-9
3 November 15, 2005 ISBN 4-09-191693-7
4 November 15, 2005 ISBN 4-09-191694-5
5 December 15, 2005 ISBN 4-09-191695-3
6 December 15, 2005 ISBN 4-09-191696-1

[edit] Anime

See also: List of Ceres, Celestial Legend episodes

[edit] Music

Opening Theme:

  • "Scarlet" (スカーレット Sukāretto?) : Eps. 01 - 24
Lyrics by: Ken Takahashi
Composition by: Taisuke Sawachika
Arrangement by: Harukichi Yamamoto
Song by: Junko Iwao

Ending Theme:

  • "ONE ~ Even if This World Comes to an End, I Won't Leave You ~" (ONE～この世が果てても離れない～ ONE～Kono Yo ga Hatete mo Hanarenai～?) : Eps. 01 - 15
Lyrics by: Yuriko Mori
Composition and arrangement by: Ryo Sakai
Song by: DAY-BREAK
  • "Cross My Heart" : Eps. 16 - 23
Lyrics by: Yuriko Mori
Composition and arrangement by: Ryo Sakai
Song by: DAY-BREAK
  • "Scarlet Ver.II" (スカーレット Ver.II Sukāretto Ver.II?) : Ep. 24
Lyrics by: Ken Takahashi
Composition by: Taisuke Sawachika
Arrangement by: Harukichi Yamamoto
Song by: Junko Iwao

Insert Theme:

  • "Eternal Wind" (無限の風 Mugen no Kaze?) : Ep. 22
Lyrics by: Yuriko Mori
Composition and arrangement by: Ryo Sakai
Song by: Shizuka Sasaki (Shuro Tsukasa)

GeSANG is a famous J-pop idol duo performed by Shizuka Sasaki as Shuro Tsukasa and Kenji Nojima as Kei Tsukasa.

[edit] References

  1. ^ 小学館漫画賞：歴代受賞者 (Japanese). Shogakukan. Retrieved on 2007-08-19.
  2. ^ 小学館：コミック ((Japanese)). Shogakukan. Retrieved on 2008-02-17.
  3. ^ Ceres: Celestial Legend. Viz Media. Retrieved on 2008-02-17.
  4. ^ Viz Media (2004-03-18). "Viz Announces Release of Second Edition Manga Titles". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-23.

[edit] External links